Fuller’s Field
Fuller’s Field is a region mentioned in the Old Testament, located in the region of Judea in modern-day Israel. Known today as Bir Ayub. It appears across 3 verses in Scripture.
Biblical History
Fuller's Field was a site just outside Jerusalem's walls associated with the cloth-cleaning trade. Fullers, workers who cleaned, thickened, and whitened newly woven cloth, required open spaces with access to water and sunshine, making the area outside the city walls near a water source the natural location for such industry. The site is mentioned three times in the Old Testament, always in connection with a significant meeting or encounter outside Jerusalem's walls. In 2 Kings 18:17 and Isaiah 36:2, the Rabshakeh, the chief officer of the Assyrian king Sennacherib, stationed himself at the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, at the road to the Fuller's Field, to deliver his threatening ultimatum to King Hezekiah's officials. It was at this same location (Isaiah 7:3) that God had earlier instructed Isaiah to meet King Ahaz with a prophetic word of reassurance during the Syro-Ephraimite crisis. The Fuller's Field thus became a site of repeated divine and imperial confrontation, a place where the claims of earthly powers were met with the word of the Lord. Isaiah 36's encounter at this location carried particular irony, as it was at this very spot where God had promised deliverance that Assyria now threatened annihilation.
Archaeological & Historical Notes
Fuller's Field (Hebrew: sade ha-kobesh) is associated with the "Upper Pool" and its aqueduct mentioned in Isaiah 7:3 and 36:2, generally located northwest or west of Jerusalem along one of the approaches to the city. Scholarly opinion is divided between identifying it near the modern area of Mamilla Pool to the northwest or closer to the Gihon Spring and Siloam region on the southeast. The proximity to Bir Ayub (Job's Well) at the southern tip of the Kidron Valley reflects one identification tradition. Archaeological surveys around Jerusalem's environs have documented ancient water channels and reservoirs, but pinpointing the exact Fuller's Field location remains uncertain. The site's industrial character would have left limited durable archaeological signatures.
Verse Appearances (3)
2Kgs
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- OpenBible.info (n.d.) Bible Geocoding. Available at: https://www.openbible.info/geo/. [CC BY 4.0]
- Bagnall, R. et al. (eds.) (n.d.) Pleiades: A Gazetteer of Past Places. Available at: https://pleiades.stoa.org. [CC BY 3.0]
- Wikidata contributors (n.d.) Wikidata. Available at: https://www.wikidata.org. [CC0]
- Lawrence, D. et al. (2025) Villages to Empires: a settlement dataset for the Southern Levant. doi:10.5281/zenodo.15111732. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]